Theater option for monorail

Seattle's monorail planners had been struggling over whether to run the new line around the Seattle Center or save money by cutting right through the city landmark.

Last night, the Center's advisory board offered a solution that could quiet the controversy.

Under the option the monorail authority has been considering, the line would have gone through the Experience Music Project, then head west through the Center. It would pass the Center House on one side and the Mural Amphitheater and the Seattle Children's Theatre on the other.

Under the alternative proposed at a Seattle Monorail Project meeting, the line would still go through the EMP. But then it would take a northwesterly jog around the other side of the Space Needle, going by the rear of the Intiman Playhouse. The line would then curl southwest, past the north side of KeyArena, and on to Interbay.

Joel Horn, monorail executive director, said the authority will have to study the proposal further, but said it had possibilities. Planners hope to have the monorail line up and running by 2007.

Pointing to the area around the Center House on a map in one of the Center's Northwest Meeting rooms, Horn said, "Over here there's a lot of highly designed buildings." Then pointing to the alternate route around the Intiman Playhouse, Horn said, "Over here, there are the backs of a lot of buildings."

Laura Penn, director of the Intiman Theatre Company, said she wanted to make sure the monorail would be as quiet as the monorail engineers say it will be. But she liked the idea of a theater district station, and said the monorail would be better off at the "back door" of the Seattle Center.

The new alternative would still be cheaper and faster than going around the Center. But it would be slower and more expensive than cutting straight through. Some thought the fastest route would be best in the long term because commuters could be traveling long distances if other extensions were built.

Last night's meeting also dealt with the most contentious issues facing the authority. Downtown businesses and historic preservationists want to keep the current Monorail's connection between the Seattle Center and the heart of the shopping district at Westlake. But that could mean building a double-decker line through Belltown. The new line's north- and southbound tracks would run side by side on one level. The old Monorail would run below it.

Or it could mean a triple-decker line with the old line topped by one track, and a third track on top of that.

Most hated that idea and said the old line should just be put in a museum.

Also, Belltown residents said a station on Fifth Avenue at either Stewart or Lenora streets would be too far away. Although the stop was intended to serve both Belltown and the shopping district, the residents wanted an additional station to be placed at Fifth Avenue and Bell Street.

P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at 206-448-8131 or kerymurakami@seattlepi.com

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